1. Field of the Invention
The present invention involves a business form having a release liner for permitting removal of a label or the like having an adhesive backing, the liner including an uncoated portion to permit better adherence to the primary sheet of the form. The liner and other sheets may be provided with carbonless transfer material to permit ease in making multiple copies of information written thereon. Additionally, the coated portion of the liner may be skived to provide enhanced adhesion to the label without impeding separation when desired.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Business forms provide commercial and industrial users with sheets which enable the quick and efficient recording of information. These forms typically are continuously produced on a printing press in a process which involves printing one or both sides of the different sheets which are layered on the form.
One type of form which enjoys significant popularity among users includes a removable label provided with a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing. To provide for easy removal of these labels, a liner having a release coating of, e.g., silicone, must be incorporated in the form next to the adhesive side of the label. This release coming allows the label to be removed from the form without tearing.
Unfortunately, this ability to release from the adhesive causes concomitant problems during manufacturing. For example, when these business forms are manufactured in a continuous process as is typical, it may be necessary to pass the forms through a turnbar assembly to enable printing or other processing on both sides. As the forms wrap around the rollers of the turnbar assembly, the release coating on the liner may provide insufficient adherence to the top sheet or label, resulting in separation of the liners or labels from the form. As the infeed rate of the forms is increased, the label or liner separation problem becomes more acute. Thus, production of the continuous forms with more efficiency at higher feed rates has been difficult to achieve.
Additionally, the use of carbonless transfer technology has enabled many forms to substitute carbonless transfer coatings for carbon paper in multi-layer business forms. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,386, a multi-layer business form is described which provides a top sheet and an adjacent sheet each coated with complementary layers of carbonless transfer medium to permit a stylus such as a pen or typewriter to transfer the image from the top sheet to the adjacent sheet without the use of carbon paper. Another example of this technology is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,506 which provides a mailer including a front ply having a transparent window and a back ply secured thereto to define a pocket. Carbonless coating material is applied to the back of the window produce an image on the correspondingly coated insert ply.
There has arisen a need for a business form which resists premature separation of the liner or label from the top sheet and provides improved adhesive connection between the release liner and the top sheet. There has also arisen a need for a business form which includes an integrated label which also provides for carbonless transfer to an underlying ply from a stylus applied to the integrated label.